


Health is not valued till sickness kicks down your door and says sup

by Dracoqueen



Series: Slow but Steady [1]
Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: M/M, Mentions of the Burning Rescue, Mentions of the Mad Burnish crew, Not Beta Read, Sickfic, mainly bros atm, not quite romantic pairing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:00:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22334578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dracoqueen/pseuds/Dracoqueen
Summary: It started with a shiver
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Series: Slow but Steady [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1607677
Comments: 5
Kudos: 107





	Health is not valued till sickness kicks down your door and says sup

**Author's Note:**

> Wanted to write Promare fic 3 months ago  
> Then determined to only write fic after I finally got to watch the movie  
> Watched the movie  
> Was still too chicken to write a fic till now XD
> 
> Still new to fic writing  
> Not beta read  
> Plz Enjoy

It started with a shiver. The lack of literal fire aliens living within their bodies made burnish more susceptible to the cold than those who hadn’t hosted the eccentric little buggers. Quivering in the wake of lower temperatures wasn’t that uncommon among the burnish so Lio brushed off the shudder that rippled through his body though he silently lamented for the constant warmth he took for granted all these years.

Even with the Promare gone from the world, many of the burnish were still displaced and lost. They needed someone to look up to and lead them. Lio had already fought for the rights of the burnish for so long, like hell the departure of the Promare and the loss of his powers were going to stop him from continuing his duties. Taking on the role of the de-facto leader of the burnish, Lio fought tooth and nail with officials to get the burnish shelter, basic supplies and slowly help them reintegrate back into society.

Despite the fact that they no longer had their flames, the residents of Promepolis haven’t been fully accepting of newly ex-burnish. Though most of the time their glares and murmurs are tolerable, there have been cases of citizens raiding and attacking their residence (Lio lost count how many times he and the other members of the Mad Burnish had to fight them off). As much as his blood boils for the now impractical discrimination, a small part of him understands why. Sometimes that reason why stares back at him in the mirror, the memory of burning through the city still fresh in his mind and most likely in other’s.  
  
The sneezing started on the day a shipment of supplies arrived. The members of Burning Rescue and the Mad Burnish were unloading and handing out supplies consisting of toiletries, clothing, rations and other basic necessities. Galo was the first to notice Lio sneezing in the crook of his elbow (because apparently sneezing without covering your mouth is considered rude and unsanitary said one of the burnish). Producing his unused jacket out of what seems like thin air, he plopped it around the shorter man’s shoulders.

“You better head indoors, my firefighter soul can take the cold and we got enough to handle the supplies out here. I know how much you hate the cold and it would suck to get a cold now of all times.” Galo said with small but cheeky smile.

Lio leered at Galo, a protest at the tip of his tongue before another sneeze escaped him. Though he wanted to continue unloading the supplies with the others, the idea of being in the more forgiving indoor environment was ultimately very tempting. Looking at the supply truck, about half of the supplies has already been unloaded and as much as Lio hates to admit it, the loss of his Promare has left him on the lower spectrum of the… *ahem*… strength department.

Making a noise of reluctant agreement, Lio made his way towards the apartment lobby, sliding his arms through the jacket’s sleeves. After zipping up the jacket, Lio only them realized the amount of heat from the jacket that began the permeate his body. His sneezes came in less frequency and his body moved more fluidly. Continuing his work inside the lobby, passing out supplies to each burnish household, Lio couldn’t stop relishing the heat that he was enveloped in.

For the first time since that fateful day, Lio felt a sense of safety and contentment.

However

The warmth soon became inadequate.

Coughs soon racked his body and no matter of trying to warm himself would help. They were small at first, just mere inconveniences that would only last seconds. They would progressively become more and more severe, coughing for what seemed like minutes and causing his entire body to tremor and slightly convulse. Lio insisted that he was fine when the other burnish vocally displayed their concern. Despite the bile that he nearly coughed up and the slight rattle in his lungs, Lio still put up a strong face, he needed to for his people.

Then came the morning woke up he was barely able to get out of bed due to how shaky his limbs are. Meis and Gueira witness him stumbling out of his room in their shared apartment and immediately drag him back to bed. Threatening to restrain him if they needed to, Lio eventually relents agrees to take a day off to rest. Not that he had much of a choice anyway, the moment he laid back in bed, his eyelids suddenly become very happy and shortly after his general’s departure Lio slipped back into the peaceful yet also restless confines of slumber.

His day off turned to two days, then three, then a week…

Comfortable temperature ceased to exist. Now the world was both unbearably hot and excruciatingly cold. Coughs and sneezes were constant, pangs of pain would ring in his chest every so often and breathing became laborious. Any attempts to eat and drink results in instant nausea and Lio expulsing his stomach content into a trash bin. Members of the Mad Burnish were getting more and more antsy about Lio’s condition; Gueira often pacing back and forth and Meis lying next to Lio’s bed changing the towel on his forehead and petting his knuckles.

Delirious from the sickness, Lio often went in and out of consciousness and was unable to keep track of time around him. Waking up to various conversations and different scenes around him.

He wakes up to see Meis on his phone calling… someone. The fear and desperation in Meis’ voice casing his heart to twinge. His heads feels like it’s underwater, his senses’ functionality going on and off. He barely hears what Meis is saying.

“ _… he’s only getting worse… can’t eat or drink… we’ve tried everything…”_

Lio closes his eyes and when he opens them again, he sees a metallic ceiling above him. He can faintly hear the sound of a high pitch siren wailing, the very same siren he heard on the day he attacked the pharmaceutical building about a week before the Parnassus incident. A large gloved hand is a raking through his hair, lightly massaging his scalp.

_“C’mon buddy, stay with us... Stay strong at least a little bit longer.”_

**_Blink_ **

Lio sees a white ceiling moving hastily above him, flashes of fluorescent lights passing by just as quickly and greeting his sensitive eyes each time. He feels hands him, poking and prodding all over his body. The little energy Lio had left in his form took its leave. Under closed eyelids, he could only hear pieces of what sentences whenever his consciousness decided to surface for a few seconds.

_“ -ody temperature is 102 degrees Fahrenheit…”_

_“… you’re gonna get better boss don’t wor-”_

_“… patient has signs of dehydration and malnutrit-”_

_“-ould’ve noticed earlier…”_

_“… get a chest x-ray ordered…”_

_“… how can this be…” “… how long has he been a burnish? “… we don’t know…”_

_“…-pare patient for Intravenous Immunoglobulin Treatment immediately…”_

_“Lio… get better soon… please partner…”_

_._

_._

_._

The sound of steady high-pitched beeping is the first thing Lio hears. Slowly opening his eyes, he is greeted with the same white ceiling as before but stationary and with the lights dimmed. All the discomforts he had been feeling have greatly been alleviated. Lio lifts his read only to feel a light tug around his face and ears along with the feeling of small objects in his nose. He lifts his left arm to pull at the object when he feels a tug on his arm also. Lifting his head up further Lio sees a needle embedded in his arm, connected to what seems to be an IV, slowly depositing clear liquids in his flesh. Lio slowly pieces together that he is in a hospital. His condition got that bad huh.

There is a pressure in his right hand, looking over to his right side Lio is greeted with the sight of Galo, sleeping with his head at the edge the hospital bed with one of his one hand grasping Lio’s.

Lio stared at Galo’s peaceful face, wondering if maybe he was maybe still asleep. It was bizarre, seeing such a kinetic person’s face in such a calm state. Wriggling his hand free from Galo’s, Lio moved his hand to slide up Galo’s, cupping his cheek. Galo twitched at the contact and slowly opened his teal eyes.

Their eyes meet and within a span of half a second, Galo went from dead calm to extreme excitement. Standing up so quickly Lio swore all he saw was a blur of blue. Galo opened his mouth to greet Lio but quickly covered his mouth. Lio assumed that Galo realized giving such an exuberant greeting would not be suitable for someone in recovery.

Galo slowly sits back down on the chair he was using and proceeded to sandwich Lio’s hand between his, petting the back of his hand slowly while staring at the hand that was slightly dwarfed by his. Lio let is head fall back to the pillow and continued to watch Galo. The two men remained quiet for a few minutes, both wanting to speak their mind but not wanting to break the calming silence.

Lio took this time to slowly piece together the events leading up to now, from the shivering to being hospitalized. He wondered how the burnish were fairing with him in the hospital like this and whether or not Meis and Guiera are able to hold down the fort. Antsy about the current situation surrounding him and his people, Lio finally spoke:

“How long have I been here?”

Galo looks up, muses for a bit before answering: “Couple o’ days. You were really sick. Scared all of us to death.”

Giving Galo a hmm of acknowledgement, Lio was about to ask another question when a nurse walked into the room.

“Oh you’re awake! That’s good. I’ll grab the doctor and she’ll explain the situation to you.”

After the nurse checked his vitals, she left and then returned with the doctor a few minutes later. Looking through the information on her clipboard, the doctor proceeded to explain to Lio his medical circumstances.

“You developed a very serious case of pneumonia. We’ve been having lots of cases of burnish coming in with mild illness. There’s a theory running around that burnish’s immune systems “go to sleep due” to not being necessary since every burnish we’ve asked stated they’ve never been sick ever since awakening. Those patients’ systems eventually started back up and do their job but you on the other hand…” the doctor looks up from her clipboard. “yours not only just did not activate on its own, it’s as if it’s practically non-existent. Like it’s almost never been used before.”

Lio, though confused about how his body responded to the illness differently than the other burnish, listened with intent, trying to digest the information the best he can for not only his sake but for other burnish’s sake should others fall ill. Galo was also trying to process all the information. Though Galo may act stupid, Lio has learned that the man can be very intelligent and analytical when he wants to me. Seeing the serious look on both men’s faces, the doctor gave him a reassuring smile.

“Sorry not trying to scare you. You’ve recovered remarkably well considering the state you were in when you first came in. We gave you antibiotics for your pneumonia, you’ll need to rest for a few days before we can release you to make sure you’re completely stabilized. We also gave you IVIg treatment, that should boost your immune response and help fought off pesky illnesses in the future, I would still be cautious however.”

With that the doctor wished Lio a good day, gave Galo a nod and left the room.

“Hey Lio” Lio turned to look at Galo. “She said your system acted like it never had to fight off any germs or bad things right?”

Lio nodded.

“Lio…” Galo stared intensely into Lio, “How long have you been a burnish?”

“… for as long as I can remember…” Lio said grimly. His earliest memories that he can think of being filled with flames.

Galo grunted before directing his eyes back towards Lio’s hand, rubbing the top of it slowly.

Once again silence overtook the two. As the minutes went by, Lio began to feel exhaustion lulling him back to sleep despite having awakened not long ago.

Galo watched Lio yawn and eyes begin to droop. Softly laying Lio’s hand back on the sheets, Galo stood up to readjust the covers over Lio.

“Wait…” Lio began to try to fight against the fatigue. “Meis, Guiera, the others… I need to…”

“Lio you need to rest.” Galo’s voice quiet but stern. “They’re doing fine as far as I know. We’ve been updating each other. I’ll ask them to come visit you tomorrow so they can give you all the details. ‘kay?”

Lio, already beyond the point of return, slowly closes is eyes. “…’kay.”

Lio hears the bed creek a little and suddenly he is enveloped in warmth.

“Lio… please don’t scare me like that again. Everyone is here for you, so just call us for help ‘k? You’re not alone.”

Lio thinks he nods before finally being pulled into slumber. Instead of a restless one full of anxiety, this one was filled with warmth, knowing he has others behind his back.

**Author's Note:**

> Actual quote is "Health is not valued till sickness comes" by Thomas Fuller
> 
> Used alot of my experience with hospitals in this fic >.<
> 
> Thinking of writing more fics but we'll see
> 
> If anyone knows how to get into contact with a beta reader that would be hella helpful  
> Also been hearing around a promare discord server, anyone know about that?


End file.
